It’s the end of a music era. Nearly two decades after launching iTunes and ripping up the retail-store model of album purchases, Apple is ready to retire the iconic product, according to Bloomberg. During the software keynote at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California next Monday, the tech giant is set to replace iTunes with standalone music, television and podcast apps.

The move, which has been rumored for years now, will align Apple’s media strategy across the board: iPhones and iPads already offer separate Music, TV and Podcast apps in lieu of the centralized iTunes app that lives on Macs and Macbooks. Users can expect the new Music app to offer some of the same functionalities that iTunes currently does — such as purchasing songs and syncing phones — just with a sleeker interface that’s free of the outdated and oft-bemoaned features of the heritage product, and more closely bundled with streaming service Apple Music

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...itunes-842750/

Nothing of value was lost. Until they stop selling downloadable music and switch to a streaming-only format, where your playlists are at the mercy of record companies and artists negotiating contracts with Apple.

I actually use itunes to manage my Mp3 collection. Apple might not like it because I don't buy anything from them, and yes it's bloated, but I still have Mp3s (I actually BOUGHT A CD last week) that I "own" and want to manage.

Speak for yourself. I bought 40-50 movies on iTunes and I have a 10 year old computer. So, what? I'll have to pony up for a new Mac if I want to listen to music I purchased over the years? Those machines cost upteen thousands of dollars? Fuck tech companies.

So where will the movies go? Will they get ported over to Apple TV or a different area of the Apple infrastructure?

I am sitting here right now at my desktop listening to some Frank Zappa on iTunes. I am extremely clumsy so whenever I buy a new CD the first thing I do is rip it to ITunes and then burn a CD-R for listening and put the CD on the shelf. I also have a really old Ipod that I hook into my receiver by USB port that I listen to when I want to listen to music on my system. I love iTunes and will hate to see it go.

You should still be able to do that, it will just be in a dedicated Music app.

Unless for some reason you're unable to download software updates, why would you need to buy a new computer?

That's what it looks like, yes.

Wait, so I can’t buy songs and add shit to iPhone through iTunes anymore? Wtf?

I have the Itunes icon on my desktop and it still works or maybe the software has been updated multiple times and I can't tell the difference but I never had any problems with it

Read the OP.

I'm glad to see them doing something. The iTunes software on the PC is a bloated sack of crap and has been for years. If splitting it up means each app is leaner and easier to use, I'm all for it.

It's Apple. They only thing they're going to remove is end user features, not bloatware.

I still use iTunes to download Podcasts and something tells me the replacement software/app won't be compatible with my old iPod Classic...

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019...dows-and-more/

iTunes lives on for Windows...

I will be pissed if that happens

you can always jailbreak it to make it work with something else. Apple is notorious for discontinuing support of older devices part of why I refuse to get another iPad as they stopped offering updates and apps for mine fairly early in the product cycle imo.